A Real Post! The Story of Parker's Arrival

You guys have been so patient -- thanks!!! I'm finally starting to feel human again, so I thought I better sit down and write before I forget any more details of Parker's arrival :) I use this blog as my memory sometimes, so I'll probably include more detail than most of you want to read -- just scroll through the pics if you want ;)

I was scheduled for induction at 8am on Thursday morning. We were actually EARLY (if you know us, you know that we haven't even been on time for anything since Brayden has been home, so being early was just flat out crazy!), so I was in the room and in the hospital bed by 7:50. They started the Pitocin around 8:30, broke my water around 9, and then we started the waiting game.

By 10am, I was having contractions pretty regularly. I actually toughed it out much longer than I had planned. My plan was that I didn't want to feel any pain, and that I wanted the epidural as soon as possible. . . but once I got wrapped up in the actual excitement of the day, I started to wonder . . . How bad could it really be? How long could I make it without the epidural? I know, I know -- that doesn't make any sense at all, but I guess I was just crazy.

By 12:15 I was having contractions about every 1.5 - 2 minutes, and they lasted 30 - 45 seconds. I felt like I just wasn't getting enough of a break in between, and I remembered my original plan -- so I asked for the epidural. The nurse gave me 1/2 a dose of Stadol (man, did that make me loopy!) to hold me over until the anesthesiologist got there, but she actually came in about 10 minutes. They had the epidural in by 1 pm, and from then on I was HAPPY. Apparently, I have a happy reaction to drugs, because I just laughed at everything from then on out. It was at about 1:30 that I looked at my mom and said, "I'm not even going to have a story to tell Parker. I mean, this is it right? I'm done. I can't feel anything, so the pushing can't even be that bad. Most people have some kind of drama, like the anesthesiologist made them wait or something like that . . . I don't have a story at all."

So from 1pm to 5pm I laid around, watched the Louisville game, played my GameBoy, and said, "I wish this baby would come. We're just wasting time here." All day, the nurse came in and had me flip from side to side. I told her that the baby didn't like me to lay on the left, she hadn't like it the whole pregnancy. I was right, every time I flipped to the left, her heart rate went down. So I would lay on that side for only 10-15 minutes and then go back to the right. At 5pm, that nurse left and a new nurse came on shift. Everything went crazy after that (nothing to do with the nurse, that's just how I know what time it was).

Not happy with the camera action while I waited. . .

The new nurse came in and told me to flip over to the left. I told her that the baby didn't like that side, but she said, "well, she doesn't like the right side right now, so we need to try the left." I flipped over -- by the way, all this flipping is not fun when you are full term and numb!!! About 1 minute after I flipped, she came back in and told me to go back to the right. About 1 minute after that, she shoved an oxygen mask on my face and started calling for backup (obviously she's not a cop and didn't actually call for "backup", but that's what it seemed like to me). At some point, Michael and my mom got directed out of the room. The baby's heart rate was dropping with every contraction, so they gave me a shot of something to stop the contractions. . . that's right after 9+ hrs of medicine to encourage the contractions, now I was getting medicine to stop them. They took some blood and had me sign a consent form for a C-section "just in case".

Everything calmed down, and Michael and mom came back in the room. All of that had kind of gotten me frazzled, so I wasn't sure what we were doing. . . then they came back in and told me that we were going to wait and see how the baby reacted. So we waited. The contractions stopped and the baby was fine. BUT -- that is not how a baby is born!!! The dr came in at around 6pm and said that we would wait another hour and see what happened. Nothing happened that hour. So she came back in around 7:30pm and said that we had 2 options -- 1. We could start the Pitocin again, try to move forward, and see how the baby reacted -- or -- 2. We could do a C-section. I was dilated to 7, so it was possible that I could go ahead and deliver the baby. But it was also possible that if we re-started the Pitocin and her heart rate went down again, we would have to do an emergency C-section.

The dr gave us a few minutes to think about it -- again, the epidural was still in effect, so I just laughed about it all! Nervous laughter, but still laughter. It didn't take long to decide to go ahead with the C-section. Once I told the dr that, everything moved in super speed.

Coming to tell Momma that surgery is not so bad . . .

I don't remember much about the actual C-section. I was nervous when they took me back. I was anxious that it would hurt, but it didn't. It was so weird to feel people pushing and pulling, but not to feel pain. I felt about 3 people push down, and I looked at Michael and said, "They're getting ready to pull her out." The dr said, "Stand up, Dad. You're about to see your baby." Then the anesthesiologist who had been standing behind me stepped to the side so that he could see, and he yelled out "Good grief!" I thought "What's wrong?? What's wrong??" Then I heard everyone in the room say, "She's HUGE!!!!" Michael said, "Oh, my gosh!" and started smiling! I started bawling like a baby when I saw his face. The dr carried Park around "the tent" and held her up so that I could she her -- she was huge, and blue, and beautiful!

The "Good Grief" Baby!

The the anesthesiologist leaned down and said, "Do you want that relaxation medicine now?" I said, "Yes", and I don't remember anything else.

Can you believe that I don't remember seeing her or having this pic taken???

I remember very little from the recovery room. I know that I talked to Michael and Kim, but I'm not sure about what. I know that they told me Parker was 9 lbs, and I was shocked -- we thought she was going to be around 8 lbs. . . Once I got to my room, we had to wait a while longer before they brought Parker to the room. I think it was around 11:30 before I finally got to meet her -- she was worth the wait :)

Finally in Momma's arms :)